WebDNA Software | [convertwords]

Technical References - [convertwords]

Changes specified words in a string of text to different words, based on a database of conversions.

[convertwords db=xx.db]Any Text[/convertwords]

To automatically convert certain words into other words, create a database of words to be changed, and put the text to be converted inside a [convertwords] context. Any matching words will be changed to corresponding words in the database lookup table.

Example:

[convertwords db=glossary.db]
A HTTP request first uses DNS to look up the ip address
[/convertwords]

The above line of WebDNA would produce the following (given the proper glossary.db):

A Hypertext Transport Protocol request first uses Domain Name System to look up the Internet Protocol address

Here's what the glossary.db file would look like for the example above:

-- glossary.db --
from      to
HTTP      Hypertext Transport Protocol
DNS       Dynamic Naming System
ip        Internet Protocol

Anywhere the words in the from column appear in the text, they are replaced with whatever is in the to column. There is no limit to the length text in either the from or to columns. You may put any kind of text into either column; for example, HTML is legal in either column.

Example:

All the dynamic links in this website are dynamically generated, based on the document titles; a [table] is first generated with all document titles to dynamically create links:

[table name=t2&fields=from,to]
[search db=base.db&netitledata=[blank]][founditems]
[title]          <a href="page.dna?numero=[ref]">[title]</a>h
[/founditems][/search]
[/table]

This way, [search] would automatically be associated with <a href="page.dna?numeroi">[search]</a>

Then we use

[convertwords table=t2][text][/convertwords]

to replace all the titles that could appear in the text with a link: all the technical titles in this website are now properly and dynamically linked.

Parameter	Description
db	(Required) path to conversion database which contains list of "from" and "to" conversions of words to other words
table	In place of a db file, you can specify a named reference to a WebDNA [table] object.
case	(Optional) T or F to indicate that word comparisons should be case-sensitive or not. Default is F, case-insensitive
word	(Optional) SS, WW, SW to indicate that words should be matched as SubString, Whole Word, or Start of Word, same as [search] parameters (word breaks subchapter) when matching text in a database
delimiters	(Optional) List of single characters which define word boundaries.

Some handy uses for [convertwords] include removing foul language from online message boards, spelling out acronyms, changing nicknames to full names, inserting hyperlinks, and expanding glossary terms.

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Technical References - [convertwords]

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